“This vessel is part of the Unsung Muses series, and it illustrates various versions of the Goddess Astarte in juxtaposition with rows of pattern and text. The text on the body of the vase is comprised of transgender women’s names who have been killed in hate crimes. Astarte is the goddess of both Love and War, a true Warrior Goddess, which perfectly represents the kind of protection and veneration that these trans women deserved in life, as well as in death. The neck of the vase has two quotes from trans women, one of whom is Laverne Cox. They both lament the fact that trans women are most often attacked just walking outside, living their lives.”
Tribute to Astarte and Her Spirit of Tenacity, 2015 Sculpture
Tribute to Astarte and Her Spirit of Tenacity, 2015
Hand-built and carved porcelain vase
Dimensions: 24.5 H x 11 W x 11 D in.
Weight: 20 lbs
Alex Hodge was always drawn to the arts and regularly channeled her creativity as a child whether in watercolor classes or scrapbooking with her mother. Hodge focuses on prioritizing women’s narratives in all aspects of her work. Through the decorative and symbolic details, she hints at narratives without completing them to invite the viewer to participate in creating meaning. The women she invents exist in the present but is of the imagined future in which we all have room to flourish, to tell our stories, to give and receive love, and to express the beauty and pain of the human condition. Fundamentally, her artworks are a celebration of the tenacity and vulnerability of women and clay, an interplay of history and hope.
